10 And the crowds asked him, “What, then, should we do?” 11 In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none, and whoever has food must do likewise.” 12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized, and they asked him, “Teacher, what should we do?” 13 He said to them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.” 14 Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what should we do?” He said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages.”
15 As the people were filled with expectation and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, 16 John answered all of them by saying, “I baptize you with water, but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the strap of his sandals. He will baptize you with[b] the Holy Spirit and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
21 Now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved;with you I am well pleased.” Luke 3
What a beautiful picture Luke paints of John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. John stands on the shores of the Jordan River and preaches repentance. Not the kind that tells you to stop smoking or stop swearing, but rather a complete change of the heart and the mind.
And to whom is John speaking? To a crowd that is beyond diverse. There seems to be amongst the crowd people like tax collectors. They work for the Romans collecting money from their fellow country men while overcharging them in an effort to pad their own pockets. And soldiers. Probably Jewish soldiers working for Herod or Rome. Or maybe, Luke doesn’t say, Roman soldiers. I would agree that that seems less likely but the fact is I wasn’t there! So maybe!
And to this diverse crowd he tells them simply to be good to one another. Be honest. And share what you have. Change how you see the world and one another. For someone is coming who is about to turn the world upside down!
I love the picture of such a diverse group of people coming together looking for God. Looking for something greater than what they know. They come to John to hear the word of God and possibly be touched.
And in walks Jesus. The Word of God in the flesh! Phew! Let’s pause for a moment to take that in. They come in the midst of their crazy lives to find God’s Word and he shows up. How cool is that?
And I love what Jesus does. He gets in the waters with them and partakes in the same baptism they do. In my mind, it would be like Jesus joining us here and coming forward for communion with the rest of us. He just wants to be one of us involved in the lives we live. And that is the manifestation, the revelation of who God is.
Several years back, in Binghamton NY we had a shooting that shook a rather diverse crowd of people. It was at the American Civic Association where there were many immigrants from different countries, languages, and religions. A couple nights later at the church I served we held a prayer vigil. We had every Monotheistic religion represented at that vigil. Did you catch what I just said? Yes, Christians, Jews and Muslims. All of us looking for God, for something beyond ourselves, something greater than that moment in time. And the presence of God was real.
Jesus walks in and without words, says I don’t care who you are, if you are looking for God, God shows up! Thanks be to God!
But John warns us that when God shows up stuff is going to happen. He is going to bring his Holy Spirit along and bring change. And oh how we love change!
Sifting the wheat from the chaff. Burning that old chaff and bringing purity.
Some might like to hear fire and brimstone for the other guy at this point. You know, those bad eggs that make the church a stinky place to be. Shake up the church and move them right on out of here God!
That isn’t quite what I have found over the years, however. Usually it’s me that the Holy Spirit wants to shake up and sort out the chaff from within my own heart. Anyone else find that in life?
I have a sign at home that says God sees us as we can be but loves us as we are.
We see the stalk of wheat and we can almost smell that bread baking in the oven. Is there a better aroma than fresh baked bread? But we know that can’t happen till that hard shell is broken away and the wheat can become something we can work with.
And God knows that about us. Or at least about me. God knows there is a hard shell that must be broken down, shaken off and burned away. God knows that all that trauma and guilt and hurt that life brings only keeps me from becoming what God has created me to be. And God knows that of you too.
In some ways this is a poor analogy because God doesn’t beat us to produce a usable product. That isn’t God’s way. Instead, God walks into the crowd and partakes of baptism alongside us. God walks in our midst and touches our trauma, our wounds, our guilt and heals. God not only touches our trauma but willingly experiences it.
God knows that we are frail, we are weak, and offers the power of the Holy Spirit for us to take into ourselves to give us strength and hope. The same power, by the way, that raises Jesus from the dead!
That is God’s way.
Which brings me to something else that Jesus shows us in this story. How to receive the power of the Holy Spirit. How to hear the voice of the God of Love for ourselves.
Participating in the sacraments of the church is important. Obviously Jesus thinks so. That’s why he is baptized. But it is not all there is. Jesus receives the Holy Spirit when he prays. When he stops and lifts his heart, mind, and soul toward God.
Last time I was here I talked about my go-to prayer as being centering prayer. It is a time of sitting silently with God. Just being. Just listening. I chat at God throughout the day and oftentimes find that I tend to tell him how he should be running his kingdom. When I want to hear God and sense the power of the spirit I must be still and remember who is God. And it isn’t me.
(I wish to insert that I use the masculine pronoun because I am simply too lazy to figure out how to use another. ‘They’ would in fact be appropriate since God is 3 in 1 but that just feels awkward.)
It is in prayer that I become aware of the power, the presence of the Holy Spirit coming alive within me. That doesn’t mean the Spirit wasn’t always there but merely that in prayer I become awakened to that power.
And when Jesus prayed the Holy Spirit showed up and the voice of God spoke.
God wants desperately to be in our midst living life alongside of us. No matter who we are or what we do. God wants to change us so that we will become all that he created us to be. The very Image of Love. God wants to speak with us and tell us we are beloved.
These are some of the things I see Luke painting in his picture of Jesus’ baptism. And these same things are intended for us today. That is the Good News.
Emmanuel. God with us. Look for God and God shows up.
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